
The Scent of Scandal
Greed, Betrayal, and the World's Most Beautiful Orchid
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Gary D. MacFadden
-
By:
-
Craig Pittman
About this listen
After its Peruvian discovery in 2002, Phragmipedium kovachii became the rarest and most sought-after orchid in the world. Prices soared to $10,000 on the black market. Then one showed up at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, where every year more than 100,000 people visit. They come for the lush landscape on Sarasota Bay and for Selby's vast orchid collection, one of the most magnificent in the world.
The collision between Selby's scientists and the smugglers of Phrag. kovachii, a rare ladyslipper orchid hailed as the most significant and beautiful new species discovered in a century, led to search warrants, a grand jury investigation, and criminal charges. It made headlines around the country, cost the gardens hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, and led to tremendous internal turmoil.
Investigative journalist Craig Pittman unravels this tangled web to shine a spotlight on flaws in the international treaties governing trade in endangered wildlife-which may protect individual plants and animals in shipping but do little to halt the destruction of whole colonies in the wild.
The Scent of Scandal unspools like a riveting mystery novel, stranger than anything in Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief or the film Adaptation. Pittman shows how some people can become so obsessed-with beauty, with profit, with fame-that they will ignore everything, even the law.
©2012 Craig Pittman (P)2012 Redwood AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
The State You're In
- Florida Men, Florida Women, and Other Wildlife
- By: Craig Pittman
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a folksy style, an eye for the absurd, and a passion for the history and environment of his home state, Pittman describes some of Florida's oddest wildlife as well as its quirkiest people. The State You're In includes a love story involving the most tattooed woman in the world, a deep dive into the state's professional mermaid industry, and an investigation of a battle between residents of a nudist resort and the US Postal Service.
-
-
Pittman Classic
- By Amazon Customer on 02-22-23
By: Craig Pittman
-
Oh, Florida!
- How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country
- By: Craig Pittman
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oh, Florida! To some people it's a paradise. To others it's a punch line. As Oh, Florida! shows, it's both of these, and, more important, it's a Petri dish, producing trends that end up influencing the rest of the country. Without Florida there would be no NASCAR, no Bettie Page pinups, no Glenn Beck radio rants, no USA Today, no "Stand Your Ground" - you get the idea.
-
-
A book about the author's political views - boring
- By L. Burney on 03-03-17
By: Craig Pittman
-
Democracy Awakening
- Notes on the State of America
- By: Heather Cox Richardson
- Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when the very foundations of American democracy seem under threat, the lessons of the past offer a road map for navigating a moment of political crisis. In Democracy Awakening, acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson delves into the tumultuous journey of American democracy, tracing the roots of Donald Trump’s “authoritarian experiment” to the earliest days of the republic.
-
-
We’d be in a much better position if everyone read this
- By Jeffrey Schwartz on 10-01-23
-
Cat Tale
- The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther
- By: Craig Pittman
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It wasn’t so long ago when a lot of people thought the Florida panther was extinct. They were very nearly right. That the panther still exists at all is a miracle - the result of a desperate experiment that led to the most remarkable comeback in the history of the Endangered Species Act. And no one has told the whole story - until now.
-
-
Cautionary tale
- By Kaysi12 on 02-27-20
By: Craig Pittman
-
No Beast So Fierce
- The Terrifying True Story of the Champawat Tiger, the Deadliest Animal in History
- By: Dane Huckelbridge
- Narrated by: Corey Snow
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American Sniper meets Jaws in this gripping true account of the deadliest animal of all time, the Champawat Tiger - responsible for killing more than 400 humans in Northern India and Nepal in the first decade of the 20th century - and the legendary hunter who finally brought it down.
-
-
Needed more tiger
- By RealWoman8 on 03-18-19
-
The Swamp
- The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise
- By: Michael Grunwald
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 16 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Everglades was America's last frontier, a wild country long after the West was won. In this book Michael Grunwald chronicles how a series of visionaries tried to drain and "reclaim" it and how Mother Nature refused to bend to their will; in the most harrowing tale, a 1928 hurricane drowned 2,500 people in the Everglades. But the Army Corps of Engineers finally tamed the beast with levees and canals, converting half the Everglades into sprawling suburbs and sugar plantations.
-
-
This is not Jiminy Cricket's river
- By Robert R. on 09-02-18
By: Michael Grunwald
-
The State You're In
- Florida Men, Florida Women, and Other Wildlife
- By: Craig Pittman
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a folksy style, an eye for the absurd, and a passion for the history and environment of his home state, Pittman describes some of Florida's oddest wildlife as well as its quirkiest people. The State You're In includes a love story involving the most tattooed woman in the world, a deep dive into the state's professional mermaid industry, and an investigation of a battle between residents of a nudist resort and the US Postal Service.
-
-
Pittman Classic
- By Amazon Customer on 02-22-23
By: Craig Pittman
-
Oh, Florida!
- How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country
- By: Craig Pittman
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oh, Florida! To some people it's a paradise. To others it's a punch line. As Oh, Florida! shows, it's both of these, and, more important, it's a Petri dish, producing trends that end up influencing the rest of the country. Without Florida there would be no NASCAR, no Bettie Page pinups, no Glenn Beck radio rants, no USA Today, no "Stand Your Ground" - you get the idea.
-
-
A book about the author's political views - boring
- By L. Burney on 03-03-17
By: Craig Pittman
-
Democracy Awakening
- Notes on the State of America
- By: Heather Cox Richardson
- Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when the very foundations of American democracy seem under threat, the lessons of the past offer a road map for navigating a moment of political crisis. In Democracy Awakening, acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson delves into the tumultuous journey of American democracy, tracing the roots of Donald Trump’s “authoritarian experiment” to the earliest days of the republic.
-
-
We’d be in a much better position if everyone read this
- By Jeffrey Schwartz on 10-01-23
-
Cat Tale
- The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther
- By: Craig Pittman
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It wasn’t so long ago when a lot of people thought the Florida panther was extinct. They were very nearly right. That the panther still exists at all is a miracle - the result of a desperate experiment that led to the most remarkable comeback in the history of the Endangered Species Act. And no one has told the whole story - until now.
-
-
Cautionary tale
- By Kaysi12 on 02-27-20
By: Craig Pittman
-
No Beast So Fierce
- The Terrifying True Story of the Champawat Tiger, the Deadliest Animal in History
- By: Dane Huckelbridge
- Narrated by: Corey Snow
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American Sniper meets Jaws in this gripping true account of the deadliest animal of all time, the Champawat Tiger - responsible for killing more than 400 humans in Northern India and Nepal in the first decade of the 20th century - and the legendary hunter who finally brought it down.
-
-
Needed more tiger
- By RealWoman8 on 03-18-19
-
The Swamp
- The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise
- By: Michael Grunwald
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 16 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Everglades was America's last frontier, a wild country long after the West was won. In this book Michael Grunwald chronicles how a series of visionaries tried to drain and "reclaim" it and how Mother Nature refused to bend to their will; in the most harrowing tale, a 1928 hurricane drowned 2,500 people in the Everglades. But the Army Corps of Engineers finally tamed the beast with levees and canals, converting half the Everglades into sprawling suburbs and sugar plantations.
-
-
This is not Jiminy Cricket's river
- By Robert R. on 09-02-18
By: Michael Grunwald
-
Freezing Order
- A True Story of Russian Money Laundering, State-Sponsored Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath
- By: Bill Browder
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Browder’s young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in a Moscow jail in 2009, Browder cast aside his business career and made it his life’s mission to pursue justice for Sergei. One of the first steps of that mission was to uncover who had killed Sergei and profited from the $230 million corruption scheme that he had exposed. As Browder and his team tracked the money that flowed out of Russia—through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas—they discovered that Vladimir Putin himself was one of the beneficiaries of the crime.
-
-
Red Notice Part II —- The Empire Struck Out
- By R. Alembik on 04-16-22
By: Bill Browder
-
The Unbreakable Miss Lovely
- How the Church of Scientology Tried to Destroy Paulette Cooper
- By: Tony Ortega
- Narrated by: Tony Ortega
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1971 Paulette Cooper wrote a scathing book about the Church of Scientology. Desperate to shut the book down, Scientology unleashed on her one of the most sinister personal campaigns the free world has ever known. The onslaught, which lasted years, ruined her life and drove her to the brink of suicide. The story of Paulette's terrifying ordeal is told in full for the first time in The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.
-
-
A "CHURCH" THAT IS DESTRUCTIVE. INSIDE SCIENTOLOGY
- By Count B on 09-29-16
By: Tony Ortega
-
Dark Alliance
- The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion
- By: Gary Webb
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In July 1995, San Jose Mercury-News reporter Gary Webb found the Big One - the blockbuster story every journalist secretly dreams about - without even looking for it. A simple phone call concerning an unexceptional pending drug trial turned into a massive conspiracy involving the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, L.A. and Bay Area crack cocaine dealers, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
-
-
Bigger than You Thought
- By Susie on 04-28-14
By: Gary Webb
-
Inside Scientology
- The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion
- By: Janet Reitman
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scientology, created in 1954 by a prolific sci-fi writer named L. Ron Hubbard, claims to be the world's fastest-growing religion, with millions of members around the world and huge financial holdings. Its celebrity believers keep its profile high, and its teams of "volunteer ministers" offer aid at disaster sites such as Haiti and the World Trade Center. But Scientology is also a notably closed faith, harassing journalists and others through litigation and intimidation, even infiltrating the highest levels of government to further its goals.
-
-
My cup of tea.
- By MWMcCabe on 08-09-11
By: Janet Reitman
-
The Mastermind
- Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal.
- By: Evan Ratliff
- Narrated by: Evan Ratliff
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The incredible true story of the decade-long quest to bring down Paul Le Roux - the creator of a frighteningly powerful internet-enabled cartel who merged the ruthlessness of a drug lord with the technological savvy of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
-
-
Being too reliant on consensus backfires occasiona
- By El Alamein on 07-17-19
By: Evan Ratliff
-
Asylum Denied
- A Refugee’s Struggle for Safety in America
- By: David Ngaruri Kenney, Philip Schrag
- Narrated by: Philip Schrag, Mirron Willis
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Asylum Denied is the gripping story of political refugee David Ngaruri Kenney's harrowing odyssey through the world of immigration processing in the United States. Kenney, while living in his native Kenya, led a boycott to protest his government's treatment of his fellow farmers. He was subsequently arrested and taken into the forest to be executed. This audiobook, told by Kenney and his lawyer Philip G. Schrag from Kenney's own perspective, tells of his near-murder, imprisonment, and torture in Kenya.
-
-
Best book I’ve ever read
- By Rakin on 02-12-21
By: David Ngaruri Kenney, and others
-
Holding the Line
- Inside the Nation's Preeminent US Attorney's Office and Its Battle with the Trump Justice Department
- By: Geoffrey Berman
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Berman
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ascending to the leadership role of US Attorney for the Southern District, which includes Manhattan and several counties to the north, is a capstone to any legal career: it entails guiding a team of the best lawyers in America in selecting and winning cases that often have global import. Geoffrey Berman was honored to be tapped for the job by Donald Trump in 2018. The manner in which Trump had dispatched his predecessor Preet Bharara was troubling, but the institution was fabled for its independence. Surely he could manage.
-
-
Excellent Story of SDNY JD during Trump Years
- By WLC on 09-14-22
By: Geoffrey Berman
-
Killing the Dream
- James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
- By: Gerald Posner
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the three decades since April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot to death in Memphis, scores of books and articles have questioned whether James Earl Ray, King's killer, acted alone or was part of a larger conspiracy. Now, based on explosive new interviews, confidential files, and previously undisclosed evidence, best-selling author Gerald Posner finally resolves the simple truth of the last great political murder mystery of the 1960s, definitively proving that Ray acted alone.
-
-
Enlightening
- By Thornton Mellon on 05-19-19
By: Gerald Posner
-
Wildcatters
- The True Story of How Conspiracy, Greed, and the IRS Almost Destroyed a Legendary Texas Oil Family
- By: Charles Moncrief
- Narrated by: Scott Pollak
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wildcatters is the amazing story of greed, corruption, and scandal in the framing of one of the most famous oil families in Texas and the subsequent IRS raid of unprecedental proprtions. This book will confirm your suspicions of the IRS yet provides a glimmer of hope in our criminal justice system.
-
-
Ft. Worth Wildcatter Family
- By Stephen M. Silverman on 06-29-24
By: Charles Moncrief
-
Tulia
- Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town
- By: Nate Blakeslee
- Narrated by: James Boles
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Early one morning in the summer of 1999, authorities in the tiny West Texas town of Tulia began a roundup of suspected drug dealers. By the time the sweep was done, over 40 people had been arrested and one of every five black adults in town was behind bars, all accused of dealing cocaine to the same undercover officer, Tom Coleman.
-
-
A Must Read
- By JOHN on 03-23-08
By: Nate Blakeslee
-
The Price of Justice
- A True Story of Greed and Corruption
- By: Laurence Leamer
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This nonfiction legal thriller traces the 14-year struggle of two lawyers to bring the most powerful coal baron in American history to justice. Don Blankenship, head of Massey Energy since the early 1990s, ran an industry that provides nearly half of America’s electric power. But wealth and influence weren’t enough for Blankenship and his company, as they set about destroying corporate and personal rivals, challenging the Constitution, purchasing the West Virginia judiciary, and willfully disregarding safety standards in the company’s mines - mines in which scores died unnecessarily.
-
-
A good story
- By Mr. on 10-06-13
By: Laurence Leamer
-
Red Card
- By: Ken Bensinger
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The definitive, shocking account of the FIFA scandal - the biggest international corruption case of recent years, spearheaded by US investigators, involving dozens of countries, and implicating nearly every aspect of the world’s most popular sport, soccer, including its biggest event, the World Cup.
-
-
Phenomenal Soccer Story, mind moggling corruption case
- By Justin on 07-02-20
By: Ken Bensinger
Critic reviews
What listeners say about The Scent of Scandal
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- robert
- 10-06-22
Captivating
This book was a pleasant surprise. A lot of colorful characters chasing orchids. Narrator was fine 5 stars.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Linda
- 02-04-13
Amazing World of Unethical Dirtbags No Pun Inended
As an avocational horticulturalist, I was shocked at the levels that the "professionals" will stoop to for glory and the almighty buck. If you love orchids, and nature in general, this book will make you sad, angry, and disgusted. Read it anyway, and bocott the scoundrels. Do your research and know where your money is going if you are an orchidist.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cindy Schillig
- 04-02-21
Great tale about an hour too long
This would have been much better if the last hour or so, the individual legal battles, were condensed. It drug on a bit at the end.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- H
- 02-21-13
I smell a good book!
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
In the Scent of Scandal, Craig Pittman perfectly balances the craziness of Florida (damn those transplants) the zealotry of protecting and promoting the image of cash soaked and starved nonprofits and those who love and support them and their causes and a little science, just to move the story along.Craig is a great storyteller. His understanding and love (as only a native can) appreciation of all that is Florida and what it does to people coupled with his knowledge of the environmental sector and their unique narrow-mindedness helps explain how this kind of thing could happen and how it shouldn't. Craig makes no judgements which helps keep the story in context and at the same time lets the participants "explain" themselves in their own words, but does not absolve them of responsibility for their actions.The story moves along in an efficient way, no "flowery" language not curtailing the narrative.This is a good book about people getting caught up in their own nonsense, about reaching for greed or fame and about the enforcement of rules and regulations that are sometimes focused on the wrong things.I hope his next book is about pythons.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Vas Sladek
- 02-22-16
Brilliant if you like plants and gardening....
What did you love best about The Scent of Scandal?
The idea that some people are so into orchids they are willing to ignore rules and risk jail.
Who was your favorite character and why?
The guy who stole the rare orchid and had it named after him; the name could not be changed.
What does Gary D. MacFadden bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
NO IDEA
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
People's lives get ruined
Any additional comments?
A lot of intrigue over a rare plant, bizarre
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful